Minister Telemaque visited businesses on Praslin on 24^th July as a follow-up to the meeting held on the island by herself and two other Ministers, Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine and Minister of Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, on 19^th June that was done to better comprehend their difficulties as a consequence of the COVID 19 situation.    

On the schedule the Minister had planned to visit 9 businesses but managed to do 8 for reasons that the owners or their representatives were not present on site.  The businesses[1] were mainly from the tourism and manufacturing industry.  

All of the businesses visited have kept their workforce until June, with two considering termination of the employment contract of their workers in July if salary assistance from government is not forthcoming.  Most of them have maintained their workers’ full salary despite the businesses not being fully operational but have indicated that they may have to reconsider depending on whether they are assisted or not for the coming months.  Two businesses have not applied for salary assistance stating that their business is not doing too badly for now.   One business had not received feedback for salary assistance request at the time of visit to which the Minister undertook to follow-up with the Ministry of Finance on their behalf.

The follow-up visits will continue during the coming months.

[1] Village du Pecheur, Cote d’Or Apartment, La Goulue, Chez Bea, Seaweed Seychelles, Le Rocher Restaurant, UR Car rental, JNL Enterprise and Grand Bleu (owner was absent)